When Will Eisner died in January 2005, everyone else who produces graphic novels officially became the second generation. His first non-fiction work – THE PLOT: THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION – came out postumously, and it’s a significant book as it deals with one of the world’s most infamous hoaxes.

The real PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION is a book that supposedly reveals the Jews’ master plan for taking over the world. (You know the drill on that, and if you don’t, you can get the information you need from Mel Gibson.) What Eisner has done in THE PLOT is trace this cockamamie Zionist world-conquest bullshit to its origin, which had absolutely nothing to do with the Jews and was – wouldn’t you know it – French.

Eisner follows its sordid history through a series of black-and-white- and gray- illustrated chapters. He recreates some of the insulting caricatures of Jews that have marred various editions of THE PROTOCOLS over the years, which allows him to use a similar plan in some of his drawings of the tale’s villains.

His heart is in every panel and I wondered at times if it hurt to use so much gray. If ever a subject existed for which Eisner felt the gray of ambiguity was uncalled for, this would be it. Perhaps the Expressionistic, stark blacks and whites of Chester Gould would better represent the madness inherent in this level of anti-Semitism, but such was not Eisner’s style.

The only real ambiguity of the book is not in it at all. It lies in the knowledge that it isn’t only the “bad guys” who create trumped-up propaganda to demonize their enemies. But we’re concerned here with this particular century-old canard agaist the Jews, and the tragedy of it all is that every time some numbnuts group reprints this “fabricated ‘historic’ document,” and we think that the world surely won’t buy the baloney another time, it does.

A character in THE PLOT tells a researching Eisner-figure, “You’re dealing with an old vampire that will not die in spite of all the absolute proof of fraudulence.”

I talked about Eisner’s book on a local TV show recently, and one of the camera operators asked if he could borrow my copy. When anything impresses a TV cameraman, you know it’s a winner. –Doug Bentin

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